Brookfield Zoo gives 47-year-old dolphin cryotherapy treatment for skin, oral cancer

BROOKFIELD, Ill. -- A 47-year-old dolphin is proving an ideal patient at Chicago's Brookfield Zoo, where he's been getting treatment for cancer since returning there from a facility in Florida in September.

Lucky arrived back home in Chicago after being diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma, a type of skin and oral cancer, the Chicago Zoological Society said.

Lucky was given a full-body CT scan, which did not show the cancer had spread. Since then, he's been getting cryotherapy, which freezes and destroys abnormal tissue in his mouth.

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Video from the Chicago Zoological Society shows a calm Lucky undergoing some of his regular treatments.

"Due to Lucky's calm nature, he is making this important medical treatment easy to accomplish by being 100 percent cooperative," Rita Stacey, curator of marine mammals for the Chicago Zoological Society, said.

The zoo said Lucky receives "constant praise from staff" during his treatments, and afterwards he is "rewarded with an extra special fish such as a large herring or salmon."